Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Short Film: The Nose (France, 1963)

Much like Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 – 9 Aug 1516) is now seen as an early (if unwitting) surrealist painter, the Ukrainian-born writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (31 March 1809 – 4 March
1852) is now often referred to — at least in the West — as an early father of surrealist literature. (In Russia, he's considered a founder of literary
realism — go figure.) We never managed to make it through Gogol's classic novel
Dead Souls, but for that we have always
enjoyed his drily satirical, macabre short stories like The Overcoat
and The Nose. Especially the
latter features one of the most inanely surreal literary concepts to precede
that of a guy waking up one morning as a cockroach (see: Kafka, The Metamorphosis[trailer to the 2012 Canadian film
version]). In The Nose, a barber awakens to find a nose in his bread and, in turn, a client of his wakes up to find out that his nose is
gone… and that it has also taken on a life of its own.

"The use of a nose as the
main source of conflict in the story could have been due to Gogol's own
experience with an oddly shaped nose, which was often the subject of
self-deprecating jokes in letters. The use of iconic landmarks in the story, as
well as the sheer absurdity of the story, has made The Nose an important part of St. Petersburg's literary tradition.
[Wikipedia]"

In 1963, the Russian-born artist,
filmmaker and illustrator Alexandre
Alexeieff (18 April 1901 – 9 Aug 1982) and his American-born 2nd wife Claire Parker (31 Aug 1906 – 3 Oct
1981) created a short film version of the tale using a technique they
themselves invented: pinscreen
animation. Indeed, the two even invented the technological device with
which to make the films, the pinscreen, or Écran d'épingles (patent
registered 1935 in the name of Claire Parker), "a vertically-mounted grid
of 240,000 sliding metal rods that are first manually pushed into position to
create lit and shaded areas, then filmed frame by frame. [Wikipedia]"

"The
Nose is a divine bit of nonsense that is better if one does not
attempt to make sense of its absurdity and dream logic. (That hasn't stopped
academics from trying, including the usual, tedious Freudians. But, hey, who am
I to interfere with someone's livelihood?) The story is simplified considerably
in this version and a subplot about Major Kovalyov's flirting ways is cut
entirely but that is understandable given that the film is silent and without
intertitles. [Fritzi Kramer @ Movie Silently]" (As they say in German, "Wie die Nase eines Mannes, so sein Johannes.")

Talent, by the way, seems to have
run in the Alexeieff family: Alexeieff's daughter Svetlana Alexeieff-Rockwell
is a successful painter and illustrator, and her son (his grandson), [Charles]
Alexandre Rockwell, is an independent filmmaker — he did the segment The Wrong Man in Four Rooms (1995 / trailer), among other things.

We here at A Wasted Life first caught this short decades ago at art school,
where it bowled us over. The story, great, and the visuals absolutely beautiful
— a cavalcade of images that would work, artistically, on their own if removed
from the source and presented as solo pieces. Achieved by a painstakingly slow
process of moving the pins on a pinboard, one by one. All the more amazing when
you consider that they didn't work with advance sketches or drawings, creating
each frame one at a time. It is hardly surprising that the duo only ever made
six short films. (That said, the duo saw no difference between
"artistic" and "commercial" work and created up to 41 adverting shorts, many
using the technique.)

Recently we rediscovered this undeservedly obscure short
on YouTube — enjoy!

Note:

Hi there. This blog is about obscure, trashy, fun, bad and fabulous films. Therefore, this blog is likely to contain "adult" material such as images of blood, guts, nekkid wimin and even — GASP! — penis. If you are offended by the sight of such things, we advise you leave this blog and go here instead.Please be forewarned that A Wasted Life, as life is apt to be, may not be suitable for under-age readers and/or workplace viewing. Reader discretion is advised.Furthermore, we take no responsibility for any of the links found on this blog. So if you click on one, you take full responsibility for your decision to do so no matter whether you are suddenly confronted by Donald Duck, clean-shaven clinical detail, gushing salamis, Trojans from Russia or whatever.Feel free to use anything found on this blog – our only contingency is that you should give proper credit and (if possible) add a link to A Wasted Life.Peace, love and Bobby Sherman.

About Me

An accidental ex-pat that has enjoyed the city of Berlin for over 30 years shares his extensive knowledge and personal opinions on the films that he has and still is wasting his life on by watching.
For more insight into his fabulously normal life, choose one of the blogs below that fits the topic you want to read about. And remember: it's not life that sucks, it's your life that sucks.

LOLOL funny shit! really enjoyed this. i just downloaded this movie and now I wonder — why the heck did i waste my bandwith. Ur comments are funny as hell. Do u have any comments on the recent beowulf and grendel flicks? [Anonymous (rajivness@gmail.com) @ Beowulf]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.[Graciela @ Come Back, Charleston Blue]